the hidden memories
by shadowwriter01
Summary: Sequel to Divergence. An alternate world was created. In the new time-line, the surviving jedi are confronted with the ghost of the sith lord Exar Kun.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Star Wars belongs to George Lucas, not to me.

This is the sequel to Divergence. It is placed completely in the parallel timeline that was created in the other story.

Anakin Skywalker had, through an accidental contact with a future version of his son Luke, gained knowledge of the original time-line and his alternate future as Darth Vader. With this knowledge he was this time able to resist the dark side.

The alternate clone wars had ended, the republic and the jedi order still exist, but the later had been badly decimated. Only around a quarter of the originally 10.000 members are left. Palpatine was killed in a fight with Anakin who has seemingly fulfilled the prophecy of the chosen one.

* * *

><p><strong>Hidden memories<strong>

_Jedi temple-archive logs: Exar Kun, the great sith war, short summary_

_3980 years ago_

The republic was at war. Exar Kun, a former jedi knight, had risen to a new dark lord of the sith.

On the jungle moon of Yavin 4, he had found the last hideout of the ancient sith lord Naga Sadow and discovered his secrets. There he also found the remains of the massassi, a warrior tribe of the original sith race and subjugated them to his will, turning them into his army.

In the time that followed he had gathered followers and allies around him and allied himself with the dark jedi Ulic Quel Droma, who he took as his new apprentice. Ulic was at that time the leader of the dark side cult called the krath, that had taken control of the seven worlds of the Teta system.

xxx

The two heirs of the Teta system, the cousins Satal and Aleema Keto had began to practice sith magic and founded the krath cult. A short time later, they staged a coup, murdered their parents and took the system over by themselves. They built up a reign of terror.

In the beginning Ulic had been a jedi knight who had tried to infiltrate the krath to defeat them from within. Having lost his jedi master to them, he had been possessed by the idea to take them out by himself. But he was captured, arrested and tortured.

It is believed that during this time, the krath had infected him with chemicals created by sith alchemy, that manipulated his mental processes and made him susceptible for the dark side. Instead of infiltrating them like he wanted, he became more and more corrupted himself. By the time Ulic had finally killed Satal Keto and taken his revenge, he didn´t bring the krath down like he originally planned, he became their new leader, with Aleema Keto as his co-commander and lover. As Ulic pledged his alliance to Exar Kun a short time later, the krath became part of Kun´s brotherhood of the sith.

xxx

The sith forces attacked the republic and caused great damage to their troops. Ulic even attacked Coruscant itself. The attack failed. He was betrayed by Aleema, who wanted to control their troops by herself. Ulic was captured and put on trial in the senate hall. And from there, Kun had saved him. The dark lord walked into the senate hall without anybody being able to stop him. He used his force powers to freeze the entire senate in place and killed both the chancellor and his own former jedi master who was trying to stop him in front of the entire audience.

The sith, in their triumph, declared the republic obstinate and meaningless and proclaimed the beginning of their new golden age, their new empire. They judged the jedi order and it´s masters to be a hindrance to their plans and decided to eliminate them. Several jedi apprentices had been led into a trap by Exar Kun earlier in the war and brainwashed into doing his bidding. Now they were send out to assassinate their jedi masters. Many jedi masters and padawan alike died in the following massacre.

But the worst was yet to come. Under the sith artifacts that Exar Kun had rediscovered was also Naga Sadow´s old flagship from the hyper-space war thousand years earlier. On board of this ship was a terrible weapon, a machine that, with the help of the force, was able to turn entire stars into supernovas. In the final phase of the war, under Kun´s and Quel Droma´s command, the sith activated this ancient weapon.

One of the jedi who had joined Exar Kun willingly was Crado, a Cathar and fellow student of Kun under the jedi master Vodo Siok Bass. Since they had begun their training as jedi, Crado had been an admirer and close friend of Kun. He had however, unlike many others, failed in his task to kill his own jedi master and fled back to Kun defeated. Despite their old friendship he was, in Kun´s eyes, a failure.

Aleema and Crado were sent on a mission to, as they were told, destroy a fleet of jedi ships. They flew the sith ship into the Kemplex 4 system that was a part of the Cron cluster a closely balled group of ten stars at the outer rim. There they should fake an attack on a relais station to lure the jedi into a trap.

The Cron cluster was located close to the jedi world of Ossus and so they would notice the staged assault very fast. Their fleet arrived in the system a short time later than the two sith acolytes.

Like it was planned, Aleema Keto used the force to activate the sith weapon and destroy one of the stars of the cluster to whip out the jedi fleet while they would be in a safe distance.

Or so she thought. What Aleema didn´t knew was that the weapon would in fact start a chain reaction in the cluster that would also cause the other nine stars to blow up.

The Cron cluster was turned into a giant multiple super-nova that not only swallowed the jedi ships and the space station that had been the set up for the entire fight but also Aleema and Crado and the entire everything around them. Just as Exar Kun and Ulic Quel Droma had planned. The explosion turned the entire star system into a cosmic inferno.

Ulic had send his traitorous lover to her death and Exar Kun his best friend.

The super-nova however continued to consume everything in it´s wake and devastating the entire sector, killing billions.

Exactly as it had been planned.

xxx

From the beginning the sith´s main target had been the planet Ossus and especially it´s archives with nearly the entire knowledge of the jedi order.

Ossus was lying directly in the wake of the shock wave of the nova. The jedi tried desperately to evacuate as many of the people and as much of the precious knowledge as possible. But they knew it was hopeless. The complete evacuation would have taken over a year and they had only a few hours.

Of the population of hundred´s of millions and the assembled knowledge of the entire jedi order, only a handful would be able to be saved.

To that came that the sith forces were now attacking the planet, shooting evacuation ships down and involving the jedi into fights. Before the shock wave would reach the planet, the sith wanted to raid the place and steal as many jedi books and artifacts as possible.

xxxxxxx

_Side entry: The Urkupp holocaust_

The planet Urkupp was the home-world of the Dashade race, a species of large reptilian humanoids. They were a war-like culture whose members were often working as soldiers and mercenaries. In this war however, they had not joined any side and decided to stay neutral.

Their home-world Urkupp was one of the planets with the greatest variation of different animal and plant-life in the galaxy. The planet was often called a reservoir of life.

Urkupp however was located in one of the systems of the Cron Cluster and so it was the first planet that fell victim to it´s destruction. Being directly in the Cron system, the entire planet and everything on it was completely destroyed. The species of the dashade was on this day brought close to extinction.

**Remark****: **In the following years were sometimes surviving members of the dashade been seen. It is believed that, while the greatest part of their race died on their home-planet, some of them survived on outer world colonies.

The planet Urkupp had not been a military target, neither had it even been directly involved in the conflict. It had only been destroyed only for one reason, by some tragic coincidence it had been in Exar Kun´s way.

xxxxxxx

It was during the battle at the surface of Ossus that a single incident happened that changed the course of the war.

Ulic Quel Droma was faced with his brother Cay and fought him in a lightsaber duel. Cay was pleading his brother, like so many time before, to leave the dark side. But it wasn´t until Ulic had killed his brother in his rage that he realized what he had done.

In that moment, as he was able to see clearly what he had allowed himself to become. He was finally able to turn away from the dark side. Ulic surrendered to the jedi and placed himself into their custody.

Only a short time later, right after the last of the evacuation ships had started, the supernova hit Ossus and scorched the entire surface of the planet. A great part of the jedi order and hundred of millions of civilians perished under nova.

And while the jedi fled, the wave of destruction continued on it´s way through space, swallowing everything that got in it´s way.

xxx

After the loss of his brother, to stop his master and end the sith war, Ulic offered to lead the jedi to Exar Kun´s fortress on the jungle moon of Yavin. It was a offer that the jedi in their position of course readily accepted.

A fleet, consisting of nearly all the jedi who had survived the war to this point was prepared for the attack against Yavin 4.

As the jedi arrived in the orbit, the trapped sith lord started one last, desperate attempt. Knowing that he had no chance in a direct confrontation, he decided to fight in another way, by using the dark side of the force. He ordered all his massassi warriors and servants, the entire remaining race, to rally in the halls of his buildings on the jungle moon. Then he started the ritual that he had learned from the legacy of the old sith.

And he destroyed the massassi, thousands over thousands and used the dark side to drain their life energy into himself.

Nobody really knew for sure what exactly Exar Kun had wanted to achieve.

The most people believed that he just wanted to concentrate enough energy in himself to attack the entire jedi fleet with one strike.

Others thought that Kun had realized that he could not win the coming battle and wanted to use the collected energy to separate his own spirit from his body and preserve in the force, to become a living ghost in the same way the old sith lords on Korriban did.

Whatever it was what he planned, the jedi were able to feel the unnatural concentration of life energy, of the dark side, even from their ships in orbit.

And from there, they were fighting him. Even if they didn´t know exactly what it was what he was doing, they acted as jedi always did and used their powers to counter the dark side of the force.

The thousands of masters and knights in the fleet combined their powers to erect a wall of light around Exar Kun´s temples and stop the dark power at it´s source.

This had however a unexpected side effect. The energies that the dark lord had collected were now going out of control and released in a giant inferno over the surface of Yavin. What was left of the center of Kun´s power and of the massassi culture was consumed by the raging flames.

So the jungle moon was the last world devastated in the sith war. Only the burned out ruins of the temples themselves were left behind.

And so the conflict known as the great sith war came to an end. Exar Kun was defeated. His crusade against the republic came to an end and whatever he had tried in his last attempt had obviously failed.

The war was over and after inspecting the damage on the surface and searching for possible survivors, the jedi were returning home to help the republic to rebuild the galaxy.

xxxxxxx

_Coruscant, jedi temple, in the present_

No, he had not failed, the jedi master Anakin Skywalker thought as he was reading the text. He knew that better than anybody else. The jedi had under-broken the ritual. But they didn´t really knew what was going on. They just reacted to the use of the dark side, like every jedi would.

Typical, a part of him, the old, rebellious part from long ago, thought. They didn´t even really knew what they were doing.

He closed the files from the temple archives he had just been reading.

It had been nearly 16 years ago now that Anakin had fulfilled his destiny in the last fight against Palpatine. He had destroyed the sith.

Or so everybody thought.

Anakin himself knew that this wasn´t completely true. The ritual had not failed, not completely. Exar Kun´s spirit **was** preserved, contained to Yavin 4 and he was still around, even in their time.

He now laid the data cards back that had given him information about the new enemy they would eventually have to face.

Back then, during the great time anomaly at the end of the clone wars, he had met the jedi master Luke Skywalker, an much older version of his son.

Through some sort of mysterious and lucky incident Luke´s mind and his own came into contact with and their memories were somehow transferred to each other.

Anakin remembered the rise of the empire, the galactic civil war and his time as Darth Vader and more things, many of them happening after his own death. Like the new jedi order, the one Luke had founded after the empire and Anakin himself had destroyed the old one.

In theory, he should know everything that his son did. But many, if not the most of the memories were buried and he had no direct access to them.

He had a relative good picture how the other world was, but it was lacking in details. Luke´s memories consisted of thousands, no, of millions of facts and details, far too much for him to remember everything. Master Yoda actually thought that the fact that he couldn´t remember everything at once was a defense mechanism of his brain against the overload of information. The most of the knowledge was somehow stored away and he only remembered the rough shape of things.

His borrowed memories had wide gaps and missing details and normally it would stay in that way.

Unless something happened that directly triggered the information. With other words unless something happened that directly reminded Anakin of a specific part of his buried memories, like now.

Secretly Anakin asked himself how he ever managed to not remember something like this.

Yavin 4, Exar Kun, the weapon called the sun crusher and the destruction of Carida. You could think that the destruction of an entire star system was something you would remember about, right?

But somehow it wasn´t. The entire Carida incident was something he didn´t know about until a short time ago.

All this only came back to him when he heard about the group of jedi archeologists who got lost when they flew to Yavin to study the temples.

Stupid, he thought. Of all things from Luke´s memories he should have kept this.

And now the contact to the three jedi on Yavin had broken off.

Under different circumstances, he would probably think that this was just a coincidence. But not here. He was sure that it was the ghost of Exar Kun who was responsible.

Exar Kun, he had actually been confronted with this name before, even before he received the memories from Luke, years ago at the beginning of the clone wars.

Back then the separatists had been trying to recreate the dark reaper, an ancient sith weapon from Exar Kun´s war. A weapon that was able to destroy it´s victims by drawing the life energy from them, even from the population of entire colonies, exactly like he had just been reading about Kun doing it.

At this time he had also met the ghost of the jedi Ulic Quel Droma. Like Kun, he had somehow been able to exist for thousands of years in the force.

From him he had learned to resist this power and because of that he was able to stop the dark reaper. Anakin knew that he owned the long dead jedi a great dept and through Luke´s memories he knew that he nearly went the same way as Ulic all those years ago.

Now they would be confronted with the dark lord who had originally used this weapon.

Kun was a sith master, exactly like Palpatine had been and by what was known about him, one of the most dangerous who had ever lived.

Anakin had already spoken with master Yoda about this new threat.

He knew that the old jedi master was right now on his way to Serenno to talk with Count Dooku.

On his home planet, the former sith lord was living contained and under constant guard at a remote location. It was said that Dooku had renounced the dark side after Palpatine´s betrayal of him and the death of the sith lord a short time later.

He had actually tried to make amends for his actions during the clone wars and played a great role of the reintegration of the former separatist worlds into the republic. Yet he was still a former war criminal and considered very dangerous and was kept under arrest.

Dooku was the one who had found the dark reaper all this years ago and tried to rebuilt it. So it was at least possible that he was in possession of some information about Kun that they didn´t have. At least there was a chance.

The knowledge about the other future was for Anakin often blessing and burden at once. For now however he was glad that it gave them a warning about what was going to happen.

Anakin knew that he was the only one in the galaxy who had information about the other world and the only person who had knowledge about the possible future.

Here however he was wrong.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Anakin was on his way to the ship´s hangar, where he was meant to meet with Obi wan and prepare for the start of their next mission, to travel to Yavin 4 and find out what happened to the jedi expedition. As if he hadn´t already a good idea.

When he arrived he saw his former mentor already waiting for him. Obi wan´s face showed an expression that Anakin knew all too well on him, the sort of mocking appreciation from the time he was still his padawan.

"You are late Anakin", Obi wan greeted him, "not that this is unusual for you."

"I have been looking for information", Anakin answered him.

"And where?" Obi wan asked him.

"I think I know what awaits us on Yavin", Anakin told him. "I will explain everything when we are on the way."

"Has this something to do with…?" Obi wan asked him. It wasn´t necessary for him to finish the sentence. Anakin knew exactly what he meant.

"Yes, exactly with that. I was starting to remember things Obi wan."

"Anakin, this knowledge that you have about this other world. I don´t think it is good for you. It is", he looked as if he was trying to find a better word, "distracting you. A jedi should be free of mind and you, you are not only living in the past but in a future that never happened."

"Don´t you think I just know that?" Anakin answered. "But the knowledge I have received from "master Skywalker", the Luke from the future, is still too important to just ignore it.

Have you forgotten how long Palpatine was able to trick us because we didn´t know anything?" He asked Obi wan.

"I remember", the other jedi master replied. Anakin didn´t need to remind him.

They were about to meet with Ahsoka and their padawans to start to their mission to Yavin.

"Still I fear this memories will turn out more a liability for you than an advantage", Obi wan said.

"I lived with this memories for 16 years master Kenobi."

"But only recently they have started to influence your actions."

"I would ask myself why?" Anakin replied. "Maybe something had changed."

"And what do you think Anakin?"

"Maybe a new threat is coming and maybe the force is using the memories to warn me."

"Let us say you are right", Obi wan pointed out, not quite convinced. "Do you have any kind of idea what kind of threat that would be?"

"Alright, I have."

xxxxxxx

_Yavin 4_

The group of three jedi had been on the jungle moon for several months.

They had been searching for information about the worlds past and a possible connection to the sith.

They found more than they had hoped for, far more.

Their new master had personally introduced them into the secrets of this place, like the one they were currently working on.

They felt the presence of their master nearing and behind them the dark shape of a man formed out of the air.

"Is it ready?" The voice of Exar Kun asked them.

"It is master", the jedi Orad Vine answered.

Yes, you have done a good work my students", the voice said in mock warmth and a twisted form of a teachers pride.

"Thank you master. It is a honor that we can learn your secrets from you", the female with the name Karis Tel replied.

This three, Exar Kun thought, had been easy prey. They were jedi, yes, but inexperienced and young, never having been in a war or even faced a dark-sider.

The spirit of the long dead sith lord remembered then he felt the arrival of others for the first time after such long, closely followed by dread as he realized that it were jedi and triumph as he saw how easy they were to sway.

As they had settled here, he had first contacted them remotely, mostly through their dreams, made them promises, played on their insecurities, then used the power of the dark side itself on them.

After a few months here, the three became his submissive servants and that without even realizing that it happened. In their minds, he was just the former ruler of this world, who had offered to teach them everything they wanted to know.

In some sense that was actually true. He was the ruler and he wanted to teach them, techniques of the sith that would made them more useful to him.

This three were a good beginning. But he wanted more, more force sensitives that he could turn into sith adepts, more powerful jedi to turn to the dark side, to reanimate his brotherhood of the sith and to return to life himself.

Another thing he got from them was information about the current state of the galaxy.

As he found out the republic was weakened from a was that had devastated it about sixteen years ago. A sith lord named Darth Sidious or Palpatine had back then orchestrated a war and tried to take over. To be only stopped in the last minute, but not before nearly destroying both, the jedi and the republic.

The order had been decimated and was down to only a few thousand members. Many of the most powerful and experienced jedi had been lost. All this were very good news. It was truly the right time to return to life.

There was however someone else, the other jedi woman, who turned out to be even more useful to him, the fourth member of this expedition.

Right now she was locked up and chained in a cell inside of one of his temples.

She was the oldest of the group, the only one who had actually fought in the last war and the only one who managed to resist the dark side so far. To admitt, in opposite to the others she had actually been prepared.

"I won´t tell you anything, sith", she said to him again and again. But in the end, she did. Her resistance broke, like it was clear it would from the first moment.

Her name was Olee Starstone, as he found out. By the time of the war, she had just been a jedi apprentice, a padawan. At the first look, she was just a typical jedi, calm and defensive on the surface, but on a deeper layer stuck in her ways with a hidden arrogance.

But on a closer look he found more, he saw that something had nearly shattered her beliefs many years ago and made her re-think many things she thought were sure.

And it happened something even better, at least for him.

He had found it as he had first invaded her mind, looking for useful information, buried deep in her subconsciousness,

Memories, knowledge about something that he could only describe as another world.

At first, he didn´t knew what to think about what he found, what it was and where it came from. But in her were clearly memories of things that didn´t happened yet and that clearly didn´t belong to her.

Had this jedi simply experienced a very advanced form of force precognition, had someone placed foreign memories into her mind

or was it more?

Then he remembered something. It was several years ago when something had awakened his spirit from his hibernation.

He had felt a disturbance in the force back then, like even he had never before. It was as if the force itself had been ripped apart.

And maybe it had been.

He was digging deeper into the jedi´s memories until he found what he was searching for.

How the jedi Anakin Skywalker accidentally gained the memories of his future son. The two sith in the future and their bizarre experiments, the force ghosts, the other time-line, he didn´t stop until he knew everything she knew.

And much more.

It seemed one of this two sith back then had placed this memories into her mind, in the sheer hope that maybe it would be found by someone like him.

Now he had this knowledge in his hands.

He remembered the other time, not from his own mind but taken from Starstone´s, the empire, the end of the jedi, the rebellion and the new republic, the jedi and the other sith.

Palpatine, Darth Sidious, the emperor, probably the most powerful who had ever lived, but grown complacent and arrogant when in power.

Darth Vader – Anakin Skywalker, who would probably be his greatest rival in this time, fallen to the dark side.

Darth Caedus, his grand-son, powerful but not really in control, delusional and believing in his own propaganda, at least in **her** opinion, the one from who this knowledge originally came from.

Of course he didn´t remember them in person, only the information about them. Because **she** had never met this people.

He also remembered his own other self. How he had awakened again, how he had met the older Luke Skywalker, the jedi master and started to influence his students. He recalled how his other self took possession of some of them and used one to cause the destruction of the Carida system.

The only problem was that his mind seemed to have taken damage from the long time alone. What should have been a galactic conquest ended up as a, more or less senseless, spree of destruction. At least that was how **she** saw it.

Deep down, Exar Kun felt anger.

Darth Zorrowna, he thought, the one this knowledge came from, or Kaely Sirius as her true name were, a direct descendant of this jedi Olee Starstone, probably one reason why she had chosen to place this memories into her,

a medial member of a weak and cowardly sith circle, not even daring to follow their great goal to take control of the galaxy by themselves.

Instead they were hiding at the furthest corners of known space, performing bizare experiments that ultimately led to nothing. Under the rule of a clearly insane master, too weak to stand up against him.

How came such a sorry excuse for a sith even to criticize masters like him in that way?

Unable to achieve anything on her own, she had just dumped this memories into this jedi in the sheer hope for someone else, someone like him, to find them and actually realize their goals with them.

Well, at least in one thing the foolish apprentice had managed to be of good use to him by placing this memories at all. At least that would made her worth to remember her from time to time.

He continued to absorb all the knowledge he had found in her subconsciousness. As he was sure he had everything, he addressed one of his new acolytes.

Now that he had all the information for himself, it was the question what to do with this woman. After some time, she could still become a new follower for him. On the other hand she had still the foreign memories in her and he didn´t want to risk them falling into someone else hands.

"Deal with her", he ordered the former jedi.

After a short moment of hesitation, the man activated his lightsaber and stroke the shackled woman down.

Another proof how far his power over this three had grown, Exar Kun thought.

And now he could be sure that there was only one other being in the entire galaxy with access to the information he had, Anakin Skywalker.

He was now aware about secrets, powers out there and weapons that nobody that nobody else had any idea about. Exar Kun was full of anticipation.

The jedi order was weakened like never before and the republic was already crumbling. Yes, this was truly the right time to return.

xxxxxxx

_Jedi temple Coruscant_

Obi wan and Anakin were meeting the rest of their team at the landing stage of their ship, close to the temple.

Luke had become Obi wan´s padawan, like he would have become in the other future.

Ahsoka was by now a experienced jedi knight and have taken over Leia´s training on Anakin´s wish.

He himself now had a new padawan too.

Something, no, both the force and the memories of the other time-line, had pointed him to this girl.

He had known her, remembered her being his pupil because she had been before.

In the other world, as he had been Darth Vader, Shira Brie had been one of his secret apprentices.

And one of the few people who had been somewhat as close to him during that time. He didn´t knew exactly in that way, he didn´t remember everything, only a rough shape of what could have been and sometimes he was happy about that.

But like himself, she would be lost to the dark side and unlike "Anakin Skywalker", she would never return. He still knew about the horrible fate that befall her later and would do anything to prevent her here from that. Like himself she would become more machine as human, live a life in loneliness and despair and years later, she would sacrifice what was left of her existence for the sake of some twisted and ultimately senseless aim.

He didn´t even remembered what it had been, not really, but he remembered Luke´s, the older Luke´s pain about the situation, overshadowed by an even greater loss.

As much as he tried, Anakin didn´t knew, couldn´t remember what exactly had occurred.

Deep down however, he had the feeling that he owned her a life, a new one.

Whatever it was, right now Shira was standing only a few meters before him, in a conversation with his son Luke. She wasn´t in danger, at least for now and she wasn´t unhappy.

Anakin saw his son and his current padawan spending a lot of time together. This was not something that particular surprised him.

He knew that Luke was also quite close to Mace Windu´s padawan Mara. It wouldn´t surprise him if, in a few years, the two red-headed girls would be competing about him.

He was aware that, in the other time-line, Mara had been Luke´s wife. But he also knew that it could have as easily been Shira filling this role, had she not been destroyed in body and soul or maybe any of the other women he had known.

Whatever happened, when the time came, he would Luke let make his own decisions and not interfere, no matter what kind of thoughts were floating around in his head.

Anakin had to suppress a smirk, all that thought about what could have been was certainly not fitting for a jedi master who was supposed to stay with his mind in the present, something that, as he had to admit, became more and more hard to him in the last time.

"Hello father", Luke and Leia greeted Anakin.

"Hello children", he replied.

"Is everything ready?" Obi wan asked Ahsoka and the three padawan.

"We are ready to start master Kenobi", the togruta jedi told him.

"Good, then board the shuttle and let us start."

"Had you been informed about everything of this mission?" Anakin asked them.

"Yes, we shall find the missing expedition to the Yavin system", Luke said. It was quite obvious by his tone that he thought of this as an, probably very boring, routine mission.

"Typical", Anakin replied, "as I see they had not told you much."

"Anakin", Obi wan tried to broke him off.

He knew what his former jedi master would say to him.

A jedi concentrates on the here and now.

The other council members didn´t thought it necessary for the padawan to know this.

We don´t know how valid your knowledge is.

"I know master", Anakin said, "I know everything what you could possible tell me. But this three have a right to know what they are getting possible into."

"And what is that?" Leia asked.

"It is possible that we will meet a sith."

"A real sith?" Shira asked him.

"Yes." A real sith child, Anakin thought, like you nearly became one.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

At the same time that the jedi team was traveling to the Yavin system, a second ship was on the way to another destination.

xxxxxxx

The republican transport with the single passenger on board was slowly entering the atmosphere of the planet Serenno.

It was one of the many worlds that had taken great damage during the clone wars 16 years earlier, as it had been one of the major bases of the separatists.

Since this time however the planet was also serving another role.

The ship had been passing the capital city and was now flying over some of the remote and country areas.

It´s course was set for a small island on the northern hemisphere of the planet.

At the end of the war, Count Dooku, the former leader of the confederacy of independent systems and sith apprentice, had returned to the light.

He had helped to bring the separatist worlds back into the republic and rebuild the civilization in the galaxy.

Now the question the republic was facing was, what to do with him.

On the one side Dooku had committed many crimes against the galaxy and it would be morally justifiable to execute him, on the other he had also played a great role in restoring the galactic order.

And he still had many followers in the galaxy, even after his connection to Palpatine became known.

It was finally decided that a form of exile would be the best solution.

Of course many people were understandable also of the opinion that Dooku could still not be trusted and wanted him at a safe place and some would have rather had him dead.

The final choice was a small island of Serreno´s north ocean. Here was the place where Count Dooku would, by the will of the republic, spend the rest of his days.

And this was the place where the ship was heading to. On board was the jedi master Yoda, head of the jedi council and beside other things Dooku´s former teacher.

In the last 15 years he had been visiting his old apprentice several times, for a number of reasons.

Too see his progress in his return from the dark side, to discuss the state of the republic and of course to visit an old friend.

This time however it was a quite different matter.

The ship had just arrived at the coast line of the island and came into few of a imposing looking castle. It had once belonged to Dooku´s family and was now once again his homestead.

Here the ship was descending on a landing platform on one of the higher levels of the large building.

As they had landed, the crew and the jedi master were greeted by a line of soldiers.

"Master Yoda", the officer leading the group, a middle aged man, was addressing their guest.

"Captain Farlone", Yoda said. "good to see you again it is.

"I have to say the same master Yoda. Is this one of your usual visits? Because we have not been informed prior."

"Sadly no, a very important matter there is that I have to discuss with my former padawan."

"If you say so, then I will bring you to him."

"Thank you."

As head of the jedi order Yoda was one of the few people who had unlimited access to the prisoner. The others were the republican secret service and the chancellor himself. Still Yoda´s sudden request for a visit without prior notice was unusual.

That was going through the officer´s head as he was leading the way.

xxxxxxx

_Republic cruiser on the way to Yavin 4_

Anakin had to admit he was nervous, no, he was scared, in first line for his children.

For sixteen year old Luke and Leia Skywalker it was their first mission of this kind.

Of course for the entire jedi order it was the first mission like this for sixteen years, since Palpatine, the last sith lord.

Innerly a part of him held it against the order that both of his children had been send with them. On another level he knew this was wrong.

It just happened that he himself, along with Mace Windu, Obi wan and Ahsoka had been chosen for this task. Luke and Leia did just happened to be their padawans and of course accompanied them.

Had it been any other jedi they would act in exactly the same way and any other padawan would be in the same danger.

If he had his way, the padawan would stay on the ship anyway. But even there it would not be truly save. The force was not truly bound to matter and location and so were the one who carried it.

Three of the strongest masters the order had to offer and one of the best knights. That was a team like there would be hardly another one. And four very talented padawan, eight jedi in all. But if he was right, it was justified.

They were talking about confronting a four thousand year old sith lord, one who had in the other universe destroyed an entire star system and turned jedi apprentices into his puppets. Of course he was nervous.

He remembered the ghost of Exar Kun, the damage he had caused. But still the information he had was only second hand and incomplete. He could barely remember any details.

He was scared that he was missing something, something important.

But maybe he was wrong, maybe it was not Exar Kun after all. Then all this worry would be needless. He knew this thought was too good to be true.

It was Yavin 4. So far three jedi had vanished. It had to be him.

On the other side of the deck, Anakin saw his two children standing with Mara and Shira.

Two redheads had taken places at both sides to Luke, in short distance to him, while Leia was standing before them, talking and was currently laughing about something.

Maybe he had been wrong about one thing. The two girls were already compediting about his son. Anakin smiled.

xxxxxxx

_Serenno_

Yoda was being led into a large hall were he saw his former pupil sitting on a long table. The count was obviously just having dinner, if he had estimated the day-time on this planet right.

"As I see not much in your life changed has", the jedi master greeted him.

Count Dooku turned around in surprise.

The human ex jedi and ex sith had already been old during the clone war. Now his years were coming to an end. Both of them knew this.

Dooku had spend the last years in this exile and he had known the entire time he would never leave this island again in his life and he accepted it. He knew he deserved far worse. In fact the only reason he had not **gotten** a far worse fate was the help he had given the republic after the war.

"Master Yoda, it is a pleasure to see you, as always", he addressed the old jedi master.

"As I can imagine. Quiet lonely the life here is, isn´t it?"

"Given the circumstances it is better than I could hope for", the count replied. "I am after all still a prisoner. As you know the first years after the war had I spent in a cell, rightfully I admit."

"Indeed, an arrangement with the republic you have made, one that had saved many lives however", Yoda agreed.

"But tell me, are you only here to talk about old times master?"

"Sadly no. Circumstances have occurred, a new crisis we are facing possible."

"A new crisis?" Dooku asked.

"To talk with you I came about something that happened during the war. You remember the dark reaper."

Years ago, shortly after the beginning of the clone wars, the separatists had tried to reactivate a ancient sith super weapon.

The dark reaper had been able to artificially replicate the devastating dark side power called force drain. This deadly ability could literally drain the life energy out of living beings and transform it into power.

It could leave entire colonies and in some cases even larger worlds lifeless.

And the last time the dark reaper was used before it had been disabled was the great sith war, by the two sith lords Exar Kun and Ulic Quel Droma.

One thing that was notable back then was that Anakin Skywalker was the one to deactivate and stop the super weapon, after he had encountered the ghost of the redeemed Quel Droma and had been teached how to resist the force draining effect.

Since it was Dooku who had found the dark reaper this years ago, the question was if he had more knowledge about it´s original masters.

"Yes, I remember. It is one of many things that I regret."

"What we are facing now, connected to it is."

"Connected?"

"Tell me, what information about the sith lord called Exar Kun you have?"

From Dooku´s look it was clear that he hadn´t completely expected the question.

"Kun lived about 4.000 years ago. He had been a former jedi, just like me, but he had left the order shortly after he had reached knighthood."

Dooku repeated his knowledge from the old texts.

"Then he started to learn the teachings of the sith."

"Known to the jedi this is", Yoda stated, "information from the temple archive you state. The question is, do more you know. Knowledge that with the dark reaper you found?"

"Not much", Dooku admitted, "except that Exar Kun obviously only found the weapon himself. Originally it had been created by the ancient sith empire that Kun had been trying to bring back.

The few information that we found where the dark reaper had been buried confirmed that Kun had learned all the knowledge of an ancient sith lord called Naga Sadow, just like the temple archives had already stated and that he had a fortress at a place called the forest moon."

"Forest moon", Yoda repeated. His head sank with the words, Yavin 4.

"Tell me?" Dooku asked him. "Why do you want to know this?"

"Reason we have to believe that Exar Kun returned could have. Maybe still exist he does."

"Returned?" Dooku said in shock. "He had been dead for four thousand years."

"Conserved himself in the force he did before the sith war ended, trapped in his temples on Yavin 4 his essence became, for four thousand years now.

Four jedi missing had gone on an expedition on Yavin. Responsible for this Kun is we believe."

"I have heard such stories", Dooku told him. "But I never believed them."

"How young Skywalker learned to resist the dark reaper and stop your plan you know?"

"No", Dooku answered, "I just assumed a jedi master showed him."

"A jedi master indeed it was. Ulic Quel Droma was the one who showed him."

"Quel Droma? So it is possible, existing in the force after the body is gone?"

"It is. Found again this old knowledge had been."

"How?"

"In the way of the jedi, feeling with all other beings you must, truly becoming one with the force, with the life.

Different from the sith. Never truly achieve this they will."

"But also a sith can live after his body dies?" Dooku questioned.

"Bound to the power they had in life they become, trapped on a single place forever they are, their prison their existence becomes."

He left Dooku a few moments to think about his words.

"Anything else about Exar Kun you know? He asked him.

"No master, that is all I can tell you."

"Thank you my old friend."

"Will you stay for any longer?" the count wanted to know.

"I am afraid return to Coruscant as quick as possible I must."

"I understand master Yoda."

xxxxxxx

_Orbit over Yavin 4_

Their ship had by now reached the Yavin system and a shuttle had started that was now entering the atmosphere of the fourth moon of the gas giant. On board were six jedi, Anakin, Obi Wan, Mace, Ahsoka and Luke and Leia Skywalker.

As they had first reached the system, they had instantly felt that something was wrong. Why they were not able to feel the dark side, in fact they had not been able to feel the presence of the force at all, they were also not able to detect their lost fellow jedi.

And once again the expedition members were not responding to any calls, even from this close distance.

Anakin however was advising them to caution, something quite ironic as Obi Wan had observed and claimed that it would be better if the padawan stayed on the ship.

In the end he was able to convince Mace and Obi Wan to at least let Shira and Mara behind.

Anakin´s children however, who were by far more natural talented and already on the level of most fully trained knights, were told to come with them.

After all they had been chosen for this mission and there was no reason why they should not accompany them if they were ready.

It was in times like this when Anakin cursed his nearly unnatural high talent in the force.

xxxxxxx

_Outer-rim territory_

At the same time in another part of the galaxy a army was gathering with the aim to challenge the republic.

On board of his flagship the former republican commander Wilhuff Tarkin was watching the assembling of his fleet.

At the end of the clone wars he, along with other followers of Palpatine had used the chaos to leave the core systems and to take here, at the edge of known space, control of a number of planets.

Had everything gone according to plan, Palpatine would be in control of the galaxy now and all of them would have been risen into high positions. Instead it had ended in a complete disaster and they were exiles now.

Even Tarkin was aware that ruling the galaxy was far out of their reach now. But that didn´t mean that they couldn´t at least take control of a few star systems and separate them from the republic, to establish a new order.

Finally after all this years his troops were ready to strike.

* * *

><p>Side-note: The idea for Count Dooku´s final fate is based on Napoleon´s exile on the islands Elba and later Saint Helena.<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The jedi had exited the landed shuttle and were observing the jungle around them.

Their landing place was in a safe distance to the sith temples, at least as far as they believed.

Despite that the two padawan Luke and Leia were looking around quite nervously.

It was a reaction Anakin understood all too well. They didn´t knew much about this mission except that they would possibly face a sith.

There wasn´t much to know either. All their information that they possessed so far about this possible enemy came from Anakin or from 4.000 years old documents.

It was understandable that they were unsettled.

"The temple-complex is in this direction", Ahsoka pointed out.

"Still no contact with the exploration team?" Anakin asked.

"No", Obi wan answered. "It is possible that we are the only jedi on the planet." He didn´t say it loud that he meant the others may be dead.

"Let us go", Master Windu said.

At the outside the older jedi looked relaxed, but actually none of them knew what to expect.

If they were honest they didn´t know what to expect.

What they weren´t aware of was that they were already being watched.

xxx

While the jedi on the ground had started their search, the ship was still in orbit, awaiting their report.

The padawan Mara Jade and Shira Brie were standing on the command bridge, next to the crew. They both had not exactly been happy about the arrangement that they were left behind there while Luke and Leia accompanied the others, but they accepted it.

And so they waited.

xxx

"Master jedi", a deeply cloaked figure that had seemingly just shaped out of the jungle greeted them.

The hood was masking his features so that they couldn´t recognize him.

"Greetings master?" Obi wan recognized the other as a member of the exploration group, even if he could not make out his identity.

"I am jedi knight Orad Vine", the stranger introduced himself.

"I am Mace Windu, this are masters Obi wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker", Mace replied. "The temple had not longer heard from your group for a long time. We came here to look for you."

"We have made a discovery", the knight told them, "something that will have great meaning for the order."

"That is interesting to know", Mace replied very skeptical.

"Come with us master Windu." The man smiled. "I am sure we will be able to convince you."

A few meters behind Anakin and Obi Wan followed them.

"Do you feel something?"

"Yes, there is a disturbance in the force. The dark side is around him", Anakin replied.

"I feel the same. I think we have found exactly what we have been looking for."

During the entire exchange Exar Kun´s spirit had been monitoring them from his temple complex.

Skywalker was everything he had been promised to be. Never before had he seen such a presence in the force. Only his two children came close to rivaling him and would possible become his equals given more time and experience.

That sort of power was something he truly admired, something he wanted for himself.

He allowed his new followers to lead the jedi to his temple, for his own purposes.

xxxxxxx

Thousands of light-years from them Master Yoda had just returned to Coruscant. What he had found out didn´t do much to calm him down.

It was known that Exar Kun had been one of the most dangerous Sith who had ever existed.

Going by the information Anakin Skywalker had once received from his future son, even his ghost would have been responsible for the destruction of a entire star system. While this time there were no world destroying super weapons in his reach, it could still get bad enough.

16 years ago the sith, represented in this age by Darth Sidious, had been defeated.

The truth was that the greatest part of the jedi order thought or in fact, rather hoped that the threat of the sith was gone once and for all.

Yoda on the other hand knew all too well that this hope was an illusion. The sith or as least what they stood for would always be present, at least to a certain level.

The prophecy that had overshadowed Anakin Skywalker´s life spoke of balance, not of dominance of the light.

Palpatine and the ones who came before him had concentrated all incarnations of darkness in the galaxy on themselves, war, terror, chaos and corruption. They began to manipulate the balance of the force itself in their favor and with it the fate of all living beings in it.

Anakin´s actions 16 years ago or in the other universe 7 years in the future, turned the things back how they were supposed to be.

With the death of Palpatine the darkness had lost it´s vocal point, but it didn´t meant the end of it.

While the sith as a galaxy spanning force where indeed gone, there were still remains and this remains might rise again. The spirit of Exar Kun was possibly the best candidate for such a return.

xxxxxxx

The group of jedi had arrived before one of the temples and followed the others inside. None of them had a particular good feeling as they entered the building.

As they had reached a large hall another jedi passed them, this one was a woman.

"Knight Stears", Obi Wan greeted her.

"Master Kenobi", she replied. "I am sorry that I don´t have time to talk to you for longer but I have something to take care for", she apologized with a light smile and wanted to pass them.

But as she was next to Luke, it seemed that she was stumbling and fell against him.

He felt a sting on his arm and as he looked down he saw that she was holding a small sharp object, looking like a knife. It had left a small cut on his under-arm.

"Oh, I am sorry", Stears said. "I wanted to research this ancient dagger. Are you okay?"

Both he and his father felt a warning from the force as they spoke to her. But that didn´t made much of a difference, the force had been nearly constantly warning them since they had come to the area of the temple.

"Yes, it is only a small cut", Luke replied however, despite his mistrust.

"Good, I have to go now", she said, smiling.

For a moment Anakin and Luke wanted to hold her back, but before they had the chance they heard another voice.

"Ah welcome masters", he said.

It was the third jedi of the group who had just entered the hall. In opposite to the others he was a bothan and not human.

"Master No´la", Mace Windu greeted him.

"Welcome master Windu, Kenobi, Skywalker", the newcomer replied.

The warning they had just felt over the woman was nothing compared to the one they all felt now, so they decided to ignore her for the moment.

"Is Knight Starstone not with you?" Anakin asked them.

"She is occupied", the bothan answered. "You will see her soon."

"Master No´la", Obi wan asked with a good level of distrust, "can you tell us what this place is?"

Anakin didn´t need to hear the answer, he knew it perfectly well.

"With pleasure", the bothan-jedi said with a proud smile on his face.

"This is the center of power of the great Exar Kun." He spread his arms as if to show the importance of the temple. "This is the place from there the galaxy will be build anew. And this is the place where you will die."

Suddenly and without a warning he draw his lightsaber and jumped forward at them. He attacked Mace and Obi Wan directly with a brutal assault.

They all felt a sudden outbreak of the dark side.

At the same time his partner had mirrored his actions and was targeting Luke. The young jedi defended himself and parried his attack.

"No´la, Vine, what are you doing, put your weapons down", Mace Windu ordered them. His opponent only answered with a snarl and intensified the fight.

It was clear to them that they had both fallen to the influence of this place. The fourth member of the group, Olee Starstone had possibly turned along with them, that or she was already dead.

Mace stroke back and brought the bothan to the defensive. Then Anakin attacked from the side and gave him the opening he needed and Windu cut off No´las sword hand.

"Give up", he said, not wanting to kill the now former jedi.

But their opponent only growled and with his remaining hand he began to send force lightning at them.

Mace deflected the attack with his lightsaber but as a result the lightning was send back to it´s creator. The inexperienced jedi, who had no idea how to counter this power was hit by his own attack.

He was thrown backwards by the force and was lying motionless on the ground, his body smoking. They realized that the bothan´s presence was not longer to feel, he was dead.

Luke had stopped the assault from his attacker, but now the man turned around and was aiming for Leia who raised her weapon to fight him. As she had met a few of his strikes her brother came to her help.

But the man only seemed to concentrate on killing Leia now and left himself wide open as the padawan cut him down.

A moment later Luke saw in shock what he had done.

Two of the jedi they had been send to find were dead, by their own hands. They had attacked them in a mad rage and left them no choice. There was only one question open.

"Why had they done this?" Obi wan asked. "Have they gone insane through the dark side."

Mace saw that someone was contacting them from the ship, it was Mara.

"Master", she said, "we had just detected a small ship that had started close from your coordinates. We wanted to intercept it but it had left the atmosphere at the other side of the moon."

"Stears", Anakin realized, "this was just a distraction so that she could make it off this planet undisturbed and there is a good chance she has taken Exar Kun with her."

xxxxxxx

The jedi knight Ala Stears was sitting at the controls of her ship. Like the whole time she was under the influence of Exar Kun, a puppet of the dark side in the truest sense of the word.

And like before her master was with her, partly possessing the physical body, giving her orders.

The ancient spirit thought about the latest developments.

Sacrificing his other two pawns had been worth the gain.

It was clear to him from the beginning that they would have no chance against five force user of that level. They were nothing more than a distraction.

Thanks to their demise he now had what he truly needed.

He looked down at his servants hands, at the blade she still carried, the blood of a Skywalker.

With the information he had absorbed from this unfortunate woman, he knew how to make use of what he had.

Kamino, he thought.

With him the dark side would rise once again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5  
><strong>

_Yavin 4_

The spirit of Exar Kun was gone from the planet, at least in this one point the jedi were sure. His presence was not longer to detect.

They were however also sure that he **had** been there.

The obvious possession of the three jedi here and their vicious, seemingly senseless attack on their group was clearly the work of a very powerful dark-side source. They all could feel this.

But now it was not longer there, probably vanished together with the single surviving of the dark jedi.

Now that the dark presence was gone, Yavin 4 had seemingly returned to be a normal world or at least was closer to it when it had ever been in the last thousands of years.

Aside from the masters, Luke and Leia were sitting on the steppes before one of the smaller temples. They both had just gone through an haunting experience.

While as jedi padawan they had seen people die before, it had never been by their own hand.

And now it were even tow other jedi, fellow members of the order who had been killed by their group.

None of them knew what to say.

This was the place where their father saw them.

It was instantly clear to him what was going on.

"Luke, Leia", he greeted them.

"Father, Dad", they said to him.

"I can imagine how you feel."

"They were jedi, just like us", Luke told him.

"Yes they were."

"And we have killed them", Leia pointed out, "just like that."

"They were attacking us, they would have killed us."

"Because they were under the influence of the sith", Luke interrupted him. "If we had been on this planet we would have probably ended just like them."

Anakin´s face showed shock for a moment, but he had to admit they were right. He was glad more than anything that Luke or Leia had not been part of this expedition.

"You may have", he said quietly, "but I am more than happy that you weren´t."

"Thanks Dad", Leia told him.

"During the Clone Wars", Luke asked him, "have you met other jedi like that?"

"Yes many."

"And you killed them?"

"Some of them, if I had no other choice, like now."

"But that doesn´t make it feel better", Luke remarked.

Anakin remembered Count Dooku kneeling before him unarmed with his hand severed and Palpatine´s voice telling him to kill his opponent and how he refused.

And he remembered the vision from the other world were he actually did it.

"No, it doesn´t", he said to his children. "Luke, Leia these jedi, they had fallen to the dark side and not only that, with someone who had just fallen you can still talk to some level, you can try to bring them back, you can show mercy, I know that, but them, they were brainwashed, turned into weapons.

They had the order placed into their heads to attack us at every cost. Their individuality, their free thinking had already been shattered. If we hadn´t stopped them they would have continued to cause harm. I regret it as much as you do but I fear that was all we could do. It was Exar Kun, he did this to them and to us."

"It was Exar Kun", Leia replied, "and we will find him", she said with a hint of anger.

"We will find him. He is out there now, he will be trying to rebuild the sith. But we **will** find him, some day, not to take revenge but to protect others from him, so that there won´t be any more victims."

"I understand father", Leia said. Not to take revenge, she thought. They were protectors, more than anything else.

"Anakin." He heard Obi Wan calling to him.

"I am here", he replied.

He saw his former master coming walking to them.

"It is clear now", Obi Wan informed them, "Exar Kun or whatever this presence was is not longer here."

"That much was clear to me from the beginning", Anakin answered. "He had obviously left on that ship together with the remaining jedi."

"This was the obvious conclusion but we had to be sure."

"Well, we are now aren´t we? He is out there and we will have to find him, no matter how long it takes", Anakin said while looking upwards into the sky.

xxxxxxx

Hundreds of light-years away in another part of the galaxy, the ship with the last possessed jedi on board was now heading in the direction of another world, a world named Korriban.

He had lost his stronghold on Yavin 4 but the old sith world would be a good alternative, for the moment. Already flowing in energy of the dark side it would help the rituals he would perform and it would hide his presence from the jedi, for now.

By the time her individual mind was being more and more overshadowed by the dark spirit that was controlling her. Soon the former jedi would be reduced to nothing but a puppet, a temporally husk that he could use for the execution of the first phases of his plans.

Exar Kun knew this methods were different from the ones used by his twin in the other time-line.

But they were meant to be different. That version of him had acted to hasty, to unplanned and as a result his enemies were able to destroy him.

He would not repeat this mistakes, he was aware of the other world and he would put this knowledge to good use.

And he had even more, from the blade he had taken from Yavin 4 and now conserved on board of this ship, the blood of a Skywalker.

Exar would use his abilities in sith-alchemy to create a new body from it, one that would be stronger than he would have ever dreamed of, he would find new followers and recreate the sith.

He knew all that might take him years, but that didn´t matter. There was all the time in the universe.

End


End file.
